Greece beat Czech Republic 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 19-25, 25-22, 15-13) - duration 2:22
23-May, start time: 21:07, end time: 23:29 - Attendance: 3,390Greece edges the Czech Republic in five, to retain perfect record
Greece twice came back from 0-1 and 1-2, to narrowly edge the Czech Republic in five sets and retain a perfect record after three matches in Pool D of the Intercontinental Round of the 2003 World League. Greece also took advantage of France's defeat in the hands of Japan, to take the lead in the standings of the pool. Once more, it was Marios Giourdas who led the scoring for Greece, with 20 points, although the Czech Republic's Dalibor Polak, despite giving Greece the final victory with a wide attack at 14-13 in the tie-break, emerged the top scorer of the match with a total of 28 points. Greece started the match with substitute setter Theodoros Bozidis replacing Vassilis Kournetas (who had been suffering from a light injury since the previous weekend). The Czechs took the home team by surprise, to gain an early lead and Greece managed to come aheadonly slightly at 14-13. The Czechs replied with a rally of five straight points to make the score 14-18, before coming away with the first set 21-25. With Kournetas back in action on the court, Greece overcame the Czech Republic's 15-17 lead, to take the lead at 18-17 and 24-21 --and then held out to tie the overall score at 1-1, with 25-23 in the second set. But the Czechs hadn't put their last word in, yet, as they comfortably gained a lead in the third set and held it throughout, to finish at 19-25. But the home team still had enough power remaining to turn the match around. Leading for most part of the second half of the fourth set, Greece held off the Czech counterattack at 22-21, to make it 24-21 and finish the set 25-22 with an impressive block by Antonis Tsakiropoulos and force the match into a tie-break. The tie-break was close, with the Czechs leading at one point 5-6, but it was Greece in the lead at 8-7 when the two teams switched courts. Then Greece broke away to make it 10-7, but still the Czechs came back to tie the score at 11-11, 12-12 and 13-13. In the end it was an attack by Chrysanthos Kyriazis that made it 14-13 and the wide attack by Polak.